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tv   News Nation  MSNBC  October 18, 2012 2:00pm-3:00pm EDT

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it's issues like women and contraception that the president is hitting hard today in hopes of breaking what seems to be governor romney's momentum. >> by the way, we want our sons to thrive in math and science and engineers, but we also want our daughters to thrive in those fields, too. we don't have to order up binders to find qualified, talented, driven young women who can learn and excel in these fields right now. and when these young women graduate, i want them to receive equal pay for equal work. >> also today a group of women who served under governor romney during his time as the governor of massachusetts, they're now on a bus tour through iowa talking up his positions on women's issues. on "the view" today ann romney was pressed about whether her husband believes access to contraception and abortion is an
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economic issue. here's how she responded. >> you know, again, i would love it if you'd get my husband on the couch, joy, and you can go through that. you go down with that all you want. what i know is what i can tell you and what i can reflect about my husband and who he is as a person. >> governor romney was invited on "the view," and he said it didn't fit p in his schedule. here's keith boykin and cnbc ann cornblut. for the first time in new york city, a nationally syndicated radio show host conservative steve diese. we said governor romney's momentum, but let me clarify this poll likely women voters. in virginia the president leads 54/42, ohio 54/42, florida, 54/41. is the president discussing these issues related to women's
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health because he sees governor romney having momentum or that's an achilles heel for governor romney? >> i think it's an achilles heel for romney. they focused on it, and they have a strong record on women's issues. governor romney does not. it's not just the binders comment, but you saw today they released this very strong ad on abortion going after mitt romney's contradictions on the state. this is why people like steve in the past never supported mitt romney, because he's all over the map on the issue of abortion. ted kennedy called him multiple choice. >> we have a new ad from the president hitting governor romney on the issue of abortion and we have the romney campaign's response if you will. those are out today, in fact. let's play them. >> you know, those ads say mitt romney would ban all abortions and contraceptions seemed a bit extreme, so i looked into it. turns out romney doesn't oppose
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contraception at all, but i'm more concerned about the debt our children will be left with. i voted for president obama last time, but we can't afford four more years. >> seeing this from mitt romney? then take a look at this. >> if roe v. wade was overturned, would you sign it. >> i'd be delighted to stein that bill. >> banning all abortions? >> i'll be delighted to sign that bill. >> steve, which of those ads reflects mitt romney accurately? >> yeah, steve, which is it? >> i love you're both in studio. don't go to blows. go ahead. >> let me pull a mitt romney and say both. they both are mitt romney, and that's the problem, tamron. he's the only politician i know of in the united states of america alive today who over the course of his political career has held every conceivable position on the issue of life.
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he's signed into law tax payer funded abortions and birth control mandates on the catholic church. now he criticizes the president for doing it. >> both of you are both accurate. >> you support him, right? >> i only support pro-life candidates. >> do you think he's pro-life. >> for someone to be pro-life, they have to believe life is sacred from the moment it's received until the natural death. >> it's up to mitt romney to meet my definition. i don't have to clarify my position for him. he needs to clarify my position for me. >> he's not done that. >> he's clarified it multiple times with multiple choices. >> your definition of wanting to support a pro-life candidate has some holes in it. you'll be willing to vote for someone you don't understand where he stands. >> i would not vote for somebody who is not pro-life. >> are you going to vote for him or not? >> there's 19 days to the election. >> you're undecided.
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breaking news. steve diese is undecided. men matter in this election, but we know what group matters most at this hour and juncture, and it's female voters. and those ads are directed at women. chuck todd describes it particularly suburban women who have not made up their minds aat this point. >> yes, and with all due respect to steve here, i think that mitt romney's not having committed to a position over the course of his life, having held these several different positions is probably working in his favor here toward the end. women who might feel nervous about him or nervous about voting for anybody who is fiercely against choice, i think, would take comfort in not only that ad but his past record. that's something the campaign has embraced toward the end, as we see him soften up a little. >> would those same women take comfort, anne, in his campaign's
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position on the lily ledbetter act? you have complete, i guess, gar belled response here. one part of the campaign says that he does not support the lily ledbetter act. then he does support equal pay, but as congressman ryan said, it was an issue of lawsuits and litigations. where does he stand? do we have a clear answer, even aafter the debate, after having time to think about this, where governor romney stands on equal pay? >> i think the answer you just identified is no. it's the intentionally muddy middle, and we could be seeing some daylight between him and congressman ryan. in the past he had not actually answered the question and left it up to the imagination. so i think you identified the correct answer there. >> so, steve, let me bring you in on this. equal pay. governor romney says he's for equal bay but not the lily ledbetter aact.
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does that make sense to you? what are the risks to say you would support something -- you're married and you care about your wife getting a fair shake at work. what is the problem with governor romney just coming out and saying that this act is beneficial for the important part of our population, half of our population? >> what you deal with in a poll-driven candidate. this is a focus group-driven candidate. he has been both times he ran for president. when you talk about mitt romney, you have to look at history, tamron. in 1994 he ran for the u.s. senate to the left of ted kenne kennedy. in 2002 he ran for governor make the trains run on time. i'm not pro-life or pro-choice, i don't expect either label. in 2008 he brought a bunch of leather recliners and tried to smooz them on the cover of national review to put the reagan coalition back toke. in 2012 he runs as the next republican establishment heir
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apparent. he's run for office four times and run as a different candidate each time and has in this election. >> in spite of that you would actually even consider voting for this guy because he's not barack obama? this is a guy with no consistency in his policy whatsoever. i don't understand why conservatives like this guy except for the fact he's not barack obama. rick santorum was right when he said he's the worst possible candidate to run against barack obama. >> but in fairness, though, is it still 19 days out for some conservatives an issue they don't want barack obama in the white house? >> it's not as simple as that. it's that they don't want a repeat of the last four years. i think your viewers should not mistake what about conservative industry for conservative voters around the country. they're not in new york city or washington, d.c. and don't have book deals and blogs. they're conservatives who care deeply about the country.
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they're concerned the last four years are a failure. >> you're from iowa and i'm originally from texas. me mother lives in one of the most conservative parts of the state of texas f-that makes sense at this point. the reality is and this is something we heard as well, the decisions and the policies from this president are similar to what we saw during the clinton years. so then you would just suppose -- clinton says it themselves. they agree their policies are the same. you have former president bush and romney's policies from the bush tax cuts. when you compare under that, if we do a bush versus clinton scenario for pete's sake here, what years were your life better? >> that's funny. >> home prices are up. there are indicators we're on the upswing, and i'm not advocating for anyone here. i'm looking at the math here. people were suffering under policies you are ny under the b
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administration. >> you don't think people are suffering right now? >> of course they are. are you kidding me? >> the two administrations most similar are bush and obama's. obama can complain about the tax cuts. he allowed them. >> you see differences in governor romney and bush? >> i think he's another george w. bush and conservatives agree. >> you don't like anybody. you don't like romney or bush. >> i rode here today with a limo drive who is a black voter who considers himself socially conservative. he started to take me up. he said, listen, i can't believe what obama has done. i think he's a failure, but i can't bring myself to vote for mitt romney because i don't trust him as an individual. that's the majority of the american people. >> i don't know where to begin with this. i don't know what you believe, steve, and i think you are much more like mitt romney than you may actually realize. the problem here is that barack obama is running against a guy that's a chameleon.
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he says a opponent as a perfectly lubricated weather vain because he switches his opinion. because of that mitt romney is trying everything he can to shape shift in the last 19 days, last three weeks, and you saw that debate. he didn't take a position on the lily ledbetter fair pay act even when he was asked. the idea that somehow you can say that barack obama is different from bill clinton, whom i worked for, is completely preposterous. let me tell you what -- you're doing another mitt romney. >> let me say this quickly. >> quickly. >> we had 39.6% top marginalal income tax rate under bill clinton. that's the same tax rate barack obama wants to return to. we created 23 million new jobs.
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right now part of the reason the economy isn't growing is because after the stimulus ended, the republicans came in and refused to provide any sort of help for the economy. they refused to provide help for the jobs acts. they decided to filibuster as mitch mcconnell said to make barack obama a one-term presidency their primary goal. how can you work with people like this? >> i don't want to leave anne ouof the conversation, and i want to change topics quickly to not even a lighter note. this is the same thing. everyone is it uber-aggressive. i'm going to play what tag romney said on the radio show, his brother josh romney has tried to clarify it. let me play first what tagg said. >> you want to rush down to the debate stage and swing at him. you can't do that because there's a lot of secret service between you and him, buzz also because this is the nature of the process. >> you don't to see your dad get
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beat up by the media or president obama or whatever it is. you take it personally. i think that was something he was saying off the cuff, and i assure you he didn't mean it. >> keith told us his opinion. what do you think of this, anne? >> obviously, emotions are running high for the family. i don't know that the secret service will launch an investigation. >> we're not saying that. you don't hear that every day. you don't hear the child of the person running for president they want to deck or slug or whatever it is the president was united states. come on. >> you know the family is feeling it. if you look at what ann romney sdz a few weeks ago about p how hard it is and people who are critics should try it themselves. >> she said if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. >> i think that was the response to her, exactly. i think on the democratic side, you haven't heard michelle obama come out and sound quite as defensive of her husband, but you know she is. i think that's true for candidates everywhere. >> this is the most privileged, pampered group of people i've
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seen complaining about everything along the way from ann romney to tagg romney. everyone knows if by chance barack obama had a son and his son who was an african-american said he wanted to a swing from the president of the united states, there would be an uporr. this is a double standard. >> or sasha and malia said it. the last word. >> i take a lot of swings and punches right now. my 11-year-old probably wishes to take a swing at keith for comparing me to mitt romney for goodness's sake. you cut people a little slack. >> i wish tagg romney would try to do that. the idea they're saying that nonsense -- >> might make voters more excited. >> i don't know. it's exciting as of late, and there's a lot of aaggression, and it's a good thing. anna, thanks for watching your
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dad. that's one other conservative watching. >> a chip off the old block. >> thank you very much. anne, thank you for hanging in despite being left out a lot. sorry about that. how much are the campaigns getting into year personal life to try to get you to vote in november. campaign market research found obama supporters like to eat red lobster and listen to smooth jazz. that's keith boykin. while romney supporters like sam adams and eat at olive garden. represent. with just 19 days to go, this information is not for yuck yuck. it's critical to the election that could come down to demographics. i'll talk with a "new york times" writer about his article on the campaigns mining your personal information. plus, candidates in two of the contentious senate races face-off tonight in big debates. we look at the race in virginia, cain and allen, and the race in missouri, claire mccaskill and
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todd akin. you could find it at @tamron hall and at @newsnation. people really love snapshot from progressive, but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. with snapshot, i knew what i could save before i switched to progressive. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. you're not filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. test-drive snapshot before you switch. visit progressive.com today.
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oh, hey alex. just picking up some, brochures, posters copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race.
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no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners.
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the presidential contest comes down to important demographic groups, including women, latino and white men. part of getting those voters to the polls including mining into the personal lives. "the new york times" writes the campaign has planted software to see if they frequent evangelical or erotic websites. voters with religious websites
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might have religion friendly messages when they return to the campaign's website. thank you so much for your time. you wrote about this. we know that retailers do this. they study our profile and study where we like to shop. it's logical that the campaigns would be doing this. >> absolutely. this is the cutting edge of using all the tools available to them. i think the issue is, though, a lot is done to influence voting habits. i wrote a book called "the power of habit" that looks at how target tries to take advantage of shoppers to figure out who is pregnant. the fact campaigns are doing it shouldn't be surprised. they feel that exam pains and politics are different from stores and retailers. the privacy of the voting booth they think extending into their homes and that's not true. >> the message is to get the key message it to keep voting blocs,
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for example, women. we're not talking a lot about libya. a lot is directed at the female voters. we're talking more about binders than we have the late oes this investigation. >> that's right. a huge priority of the campaign particularly using this data is to find low propensity voters. folks that vote for candidates if they show up to the polls. millions might stop to vote and drive by. whichever campaign convinces them to stop, that's the campaign to win. >> we fold in the break obama supporters more likely to eat at red lobster and listen to smooth jazz, and a romney supporter, olive garden and sam adams. what would they will a campaign? >> they're more interested to get a sense of your social network. the romney and obama camp sg supporters and volunteers to sign up with their facebook
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profiles so they can look for your facebook friends and find someone you might know in ohio and say call, joe, in ohio. you haven't to him in 12 years. p if he gets a call from someone like you, he'll vote for our guy. >> it's not about winning the person over. >> at this point it's a largely a minute by minute battle going on. you can try to get your talking points out and buy television ads. what's happening on line is all about turnout. the other thing that will happen in the two weeks up to the election is when people get phone calls from volunteers, they ask specific questions on how they plan on spending election day. what time of day will you vote? what will you do afterwards? the volunteer doesn't care about the answers, but we know if you ask someone those questions, there's a higher likelihood they'll actually vote because it
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triggers their voting habits. >> sam, red lobster or olive garden. >> i try to eat at home. >> very safe answer. he's an independent voter. thank you very much. next on "news nation" -- >> recently one of john's up top advisers told the daily news if we keep talking about the economy, mccain's going to lose. so tonight i'd like to talk about the economy. >> that, of course, is president obama, theal smith dinner 2008. it's normally fun and games. tonight's dinner is a more serious tone after pro-life activists wants to get president obama uninvited over the contraception and health insurance controversy. campaign ad spending is on pay to $1 billion before election day. it now passed the $800 million mark. where is it going? it's spent right now in ohio. four of the top ten markets this
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week are in the buckeye state, and for the first time in nearly six months, as noted by our first read team, virginia markets are not in the top ten. endless shrimp is our most popular promotion at red lobster. there's so many choices, the guests love it! [ male announcer ] don't miss endless shrimp, just $14.99! try as much as you like, anyway you like. like new teriyaki grilled shrimp. offer ends soon! my name is angela trapp, and i sea food differently. just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. or best-ever meatloaf. go to campbellskitchen.com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.
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criticism for inviting the president to dinner. i'm receiving stacks of mail protesting the invitation to president obama. joining me is david gibson. thank you for your time. okay. so the cardinal says he does not this to be a political event. it is a charity event. nevertheless, when he blogs about this -- these stacks of mail, e-mail or mail sent to him to protest the president's appearance, it is politics, then. >> it really is. this is supposed to be the one demilitarized zone in the campaign where the two candidates have always been vitded. it's a roast, but it's a roast where they make fun of themselves. the guy in the hot seat this year is cardinal dolan because of the anti-abortion, the abortion foes really anger towards barack obama. >> over the contraception -- >> over that and the fact obama
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is propro-choice. they don't like barack obama and are angry with cardinal dolan himself. >> was there any mail sent in to have governor romney disinvited? >> there was no problem with mitt romney, although since the debate when he seemed to reverse his views on contraception coverage and on abortion rights, they may be more disillusioned with mitt romney. the real focus is on disinvited barack obama. it won't happen. >> obviously, they'll both be there. you have a cloud looming over, but it seems like everyone will move on and it will be the usual fun. i guess some awkward jokes at some point. >> it will be. i expect jokes about everything. if mitt romney doesn't joke about his mormonism, then i'll be really surprised. i'm sure barack obama will make jokes. cardinal dolan is the funniest man, and he's great. he appeared with stephen colbert a few weeks achlgo.
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he can hold his own. the vatican is sending cardinal dolan to damascus with a high level vatican delegation next week in the midst of the civil war. this could be a good prep for that visit, given everything happening. >> i want to put up some new pugh numbers regarding latino voters. catholic whites 47/46, 1% lead there for president obama. as mentioned, some of the most powerful catholic americans that will be in that room. of course, the cardinal included here. is it possible to do this juggling act given the times right now where he stanlds on issues with contraception just for that evening have all of this escape with tension so high this week from this debate? >> yes, it can. it really is that one sanctuary of humor in the midst of this
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campaign where the only rule is there's no politicking going on. you make fun of yourself. they have good writers. they've been terrific. mccain was funny last time around. obama was really funny. it should be a good evening, even though there's a political concern for a lot of conservative catholics is that is a beautiful photo-op for barack obama there with basically the leader of the u.s. hierarchy, cardinal dolan. for others, they would say, it's going to give mitt romney some good kred because it will humanize him because he's so funny. >> we'll see what happens tonight. thank you very much. tonight nbc news will release polls taken in iowa and wisconsin before and after tuesday's debate. kind of a snapshot. we get the first read in here with mark murray to talk about the numbers released shortly in a couple of hours. the family of the suspect accused of plotting to bomb the federal reserve says they are stunned. we'll get the latest live.
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new information there. being sure to check out the "news nation" tumblr page. there's behind the scenes photographs of one of my producers, cory you. this is jen's music selection. sorry, cory. [ male announcer ] humana and walmart have teamed up to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with a low national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on your medicare prescriptions is easy. ♪ so you're free to focus on the things that really matter. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. or go to walmart.com for details.
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lean cuisine. be culinary chic. constipated? yeah. mm. some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. but phillips' caplets don't. they have magnesium. for effective relief of occasional constipation. thanks. [ phillips' lady ] live the regular life. phillips'. a dead heat with with 19 days until election day. you look at the real clear politics average of natural polls right now. the candidates are separated by a half of a percent, with governor romney having the razor-thin edge in this average of polls from real clear. tonight we'll learn more about where the candidates stand in important states, iowa, wisconsin, when nbc releases its brand-new battleground poll. let me bring in nbc's senior political editor mark murray for a preview. mark, obviously, we know the
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importance of these two states, but you can't say it enough. >> that's right, tamron. they only combine make up 16 electoral votes, but they're very important to each campaign's path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the white house. if president obama, for example, can win both iowa and wisconsin, all he has to do is actually win ohio, and he surpasses 270 votes. if he doesn't win ohio, he can do so and get to 270 or beyond by winning in nevada, new hampshire and colorado. if he decides not to win there, he could do a combination of virginia and new hampshire. it does open up his path to 270. conversely if mitt romney can pick off one of those states, he complicates obama's math. >> what about this poll released later? as i understand it it's a snapshot before and after the debate? >> that's right. we decided to actually look at -- we surveyed one day before the debate and one day after.
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sometimes you don't want to go into the field and poll people right during a debate because things can change. you get a little snapshot of the before and after, although you see the combined number of what it is in these important battleground states. it's important to note we are seeing a lot of national polls out there, but these state polls, particularly the key battlegrounds in iowa and wisconsin are the two most important ones, give you a very good gauge where the race is. >> it gives us a good gauge of where we will be following the candidates and their suhr rarro for the next 19 days. bruce springsteen is in iowa right now. another indication of how important when you start to bring out the boss for you. >> right. you are saying, where is the boss? he's in iowa today and ohio as well. there's an effort by the obama campaign to make the midwest a firewall. not only talking about wisconsin and iowa, but also about ohio. that's their best path to maybe wrap it up. not as much of a focus on some
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of the states in the southeast like virginia and florida as of late. >> all right. mark murray, can't wait to see what the polls show us. talk to you about it tomorrow, i'm sure. thanks mark. >> there are two senate debates tonight in races for them to win to gain control. in missouri senator claire mccastille facesed to akin. in virginia tim kaine is against george allen. to public second-guessing and private recripple nations at the finnish line are due to more than bad luck and a couple of underperforming candidates. the gop senate schal lengs more broadly are reflections of a party that can't be kroelded and can't produce good candidates and win strategies from the grassroots up. the virginia candidates are looking for a greatout moment and is the most expensive senate
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race in history. they remain deadlocked in the fifth sdpinl debate. joining me now is politico's david kantenese. talk about the mood or lack of optimism, if that's the fair way to describe it, within the realm party regarding their ability to get control of the senate. >> sure. if you asked operatives at the beginning of the year, they would have said they were above 50%. that's the chase to get the four seats to reclaim the senate. now less than three weeks out, they put that marker under 50%. a lot has to do with the situation in missouri and todd akin's comment but also senator olympia snow's surprise retirement in february. those are two seats they thought in the republican column, so now not so sure. that fight to net four seats is tougher. >> this is the fifth debate between the two.
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let's start off with kaine here. allen targeted him when it comes to coal, which was brought up in the presidential debate. energy. the president on the campaign trail going at mitt romney again on energy policy and the issue of coal and fracking in this country. nevertheless where is kaine's week spot at this point? >> george allen thinks it's on the coal issue, because he's talking to southern virginia. you have northern virginia, very diverse. it's been breaking towards to the democrats where tim kaine needs to really rack up march jiven margin. you have the southern part of the state that depends on coal. george allen has been stressing the energy issue and sequestration. he thinks it was a bad deal, even though this was bipartisan. you see him talking about that issue and saying tim kaine would
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be responsible for this job loss. >> tim kaine is calling allen a risk to the economy, bringing up again medicare, education. we know issues that are very sensitive right now for republican supporters, particularly elderly republicans who are concerned that the party is not protecting their medicare future. >> right. the problem that george allen has it's a double-edged sword being a known quantity. he's well-known in virginia, but he has that record, that senate record, and tim kaine has tended and has some success pinning the financial and fiscal health of our country partly on george allen and the decisions he made under the bush administration. largely, tim kaine although he was the dnc chair picked by president obama, it haven't worked. the attack line hasn't worked as successfully as republicans like. tim kaine has the narrow edge into the final few weeks of this
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case. >> we'll see what happens. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> more on the akin/mccaskill race. this is one of the races, obviously, that has gotten the attention of people far from your home state. obvious reasons there, with todd akin's comments on so-called legitimate rape here. what people find fascinating, the republican establishment abandoned him, but even still the polls -- there's not the gap i think some people thought would exist in the race given all of the pit falls and problems todd akin has seen in the past few weeks. >> that's exactly right, although most of the pros out here in missouri, tamron, believe that mccaskill enjoys a solid lead. she hasn't closed the deal, and they consider her lead quite solid. they don't think tonight's debate will change that because
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a lot of people are watching the cardinals play baseball in the playoffs and not much watching the debate. todd akin can't rely on the exchange tonight to do it. >> what move can can he may. the party is not supporting him and the ticket is not supporting him. it seems in many ways he would be a sitting duck for any attack ad produce bid mccaskill and her supporters at this poind. rand paul's pac has an ad out in support of him, but that's far and few between. >> right. his play is really to rely on suls volters, evangelicals, home schoolers and those kind of people in the southern part of missouri. for them to turn out in excess, and he has to hope turnout is low in urban areas like kansas city or st. louis. for the first time in decades, we're not competitive on the
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presidential level. we haven't seen barack obama or mitt romney. there's a question whether there's enthusiasm for the democrats that claire mccaskill ne ne need. if you're todd akin he has to hope for low and high turnovers. a lot don't think it will. mccaskill is outspending him 91. as you suggest they're not come inning for todd akin at all. >> we'll see what happens in that big debate as well. coming up, there are reports president obama is prepared to veto a bill blocking the so-called fiscal cliff until they agree to raise taxes on the wealthy. is this a real sprite or logical move? we'll get a live report on what's going on there. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare?
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... nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! oh...there you go. wooohooo....hahaahahaha! i'm gonna stand up to her! no you're not. i know. you know ronny folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico sure are happy. how happy are they jimmy? happier than a witch in a broom factory. get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. welcome back. in the past few hours jay carney
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tried to down-play a new report in the "washington post" in a battle over the so-called fiscal cleef cliff. it said president obama is ready to veto a bill unless republicans agree to raise tax raits for the wealthier. today carney said this is the president's position for, quote, a very long time. nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell joins us. the first read team says the same thing, that is not a big surprise. what's a surprise is if the president is not willing to use veto in this case. >> i agree, tamron. if people think things are tough and nasty, wait until it's over and these negotiations begin when the focus comes back to washington and how to resolve this. as it stands right now, come january 1st tax rates for everyone at every income level will go up. the 2% payroll tax deduction we have not been paying out of the tax holidays kicks back in, so taxes go up for that as well. lots of big, important things
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come into play. how to resolve it? there's sweeping across the board cuts that were a part of the fight from trying to prevent government shutdown a year or so ago. there's a lot of complex, very important issues. republicans want to try to have some of the tax benefits and the tax rates that they prefer to continue. they want high earners to pay more and how do you determine the cuts. both parties say they need to happen, and they disappear where it should come from. it's a classic battle, and certainly the outside groups as far as the markets and business are looking at this. you have pressure coming with letters and so forth from all of the important sides trying to fix this. it's a tough fight. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you so much for the latest there. i'm sure a lot read the article and wanted deeper insight. thank you very much. officials are running down
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nu new leads. the investigation now focusing on if the support was, in fact, acting alone. joining me now is wnbc chief investigator reporter, jonathan deans. this man had been in the country about a year from bangladesh. >> that's right. he traveled here on a student visa in january, and they say it appears he was acting as a lone wolf and came here to scout out targets in lower manhattan using the student visa studying here as a ruz and he was scouting out the new york stock exchange and other landmarks. he found it too secure, so he picked the federal reserve and apparently used the internet to find people that might help who wound up meeting an fbi informant that way. >> the details of his willingness and desire to carry out the act according to all the information released, he wanted to take down the building? >> the tape recordings they have say he was very vocal about
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wants to kill women, children, americans, hurt this economy, take out a building, and that he literally drove a van he thought was packed with 1,000 pounds of explosives like the first in the world trade center bombing. he thought it was a real bomb. the fbi informants provided fake equipment. >> the equipment was fake, but he attempted to detonate it? >> that's right. he literally parked the van after driving it down long island express way and parked it on the street corner in front of a federal reserve building in new york. then apparently he thought he triggered it by using a cell phone call. he called that cell phone and it didn't explode. that's when they moved in and made that arrest. >> incredible details. thank you very much. we greatly appreciate you joining us. just within the hour a judge
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issued a ruling on a group of texas cheerleaders who are fighting to do what they want to. they want to display banners with bible verses at the game. detail next, and it is our "gut check" as well. ld only come fro. now from the maker of splenda sweeteners, discover nectresse. the only 100% natural, no-calorie sweetener made from the goodness of fruit. the rich, sweet taste of sugar. nothing artificial. ♪ it's all that sweet ever needs to be. new nectresse. sweetness naturally.
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time for the "news nation" gut economicheck straight from heart of texas. a judge says a school in east texas, the policy barred cheerleaders from quoting biblical scriptures on banners at high school football games appears to violate their free speech. the school district had ordered the cheerleaders to stop quoting bible verses after receiving a complaint from the freedom from religion foundation. the group says it received a complaint from an atheist attending a game who felt the school was promoting christianity. very interesting. governor perry and the texas attorney general greg abbott have backed the cheerleaders in
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this, but do you back the cheerleaders? a judge is saying that the policy violates their free speech. i mean, there's no crying, i guess, in football. you're supposed to be tough, but is there room for a bible verse? should texas cheerleaders hold up bible verses at the games? talk about friday night lights only texin texas. no bad nings about toexz my fwiter page. in the meantime, "the cycle" is up next. it's a new way to get cash back deals, and it's called bankamerideals! i sign into my online banking... click the "cash back deals tab"... and pick the deals i want. i just use my bank of america debit or credit card when i pay, and then i get up to 15% cash back -- put into my account. ♪ i know, right? [ male announcer ] introducing bankamerideals,
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liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?
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anncr: every president inherits few have faced so many. four years later... our enemies have been brought to justice. our heroes are coming home. assembly lines are humming again. there are still challenges to meet. children to educate. a middle class to rebuild. but the last thing we should do is turn back now. president obama: i'm barack obama and... i approve this message. today i'm heading for "the cycle." >> i'm steve kornacki. women voters are turning out to be the mvp of this election. >> i'm s.e.

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